Western States Blow Past Deadline to Come Up With a Water Conservation Plan

In June, federal officials told the seven states that rely on the waterway to figure out how to cut down on water usage or they would do it for them.

In a June 14 Senate hearing, the bureau's commissioner said that between 2 and 4 million acre-feet of additional conservativism was needed to protect critical levels in the future. About one to two million Olympic swimming pools, 2000 to 4,000 times as much water as could fit in the Houston Astrodome, and as much as 75% of what the state of Colorado uses are the critical levels.

The feds would have just 60 days to take action if states didn't come up with a plan to make the changes.

Sixty five days have passed since the federal threat and no state-created plan has materialized. The negotiations to try to create one have been tense according to a report from KUNC. In an August 15 letter to federal officials, the manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority said that the last sixty-two days produced nothing in terms of meaningful collective action.

The feds haven't come up with a long-term plan yet.

As the Southwest struggles to conserve its dwindling water supply, it has left a gaping hole. The fate of the Colorado River, the West's electricity grid, agricultural production in the U.S. and Mexico, and tens of millions of people's drinking water are all at stake.

Smaller cuts, automatically triggered by existing policy, are going into place for Nevada and Arizona instead of a comprehensive plan. Both states will be entering Level 2a Shortage Conditions for the first time on Tuesday. The states will have to save over half a million acres of land. California is the biggest water user.

The restrictions that were already in place are still in place. Prior to this week, Arizona's supply reduction was more than what it is today.

Existing curtailments and some administrative actions have been extended. The new Inflation Reduction Act allocates $4 billion to water management in the Colorado River Basin. Incremental shifts aren't enough according to environmental advocates.

The 2a cuts alone are not going to be enough according to the director of the Great Basin Water Network.

The general manager of the Central Arizona Project told CNN that the United States has been trying to encourage voluntary offers rather than getting out of the way. States may need the stick at this point.